State Dept. Closes Office Working on Shutting Guantánamo Prison

Source: Nw York Times

State Dept. Closes Office Working on Shutting Guantánamo Prison
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: January 28, 2013

FORT MEADE, Md. — The State Department on Monday reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him, according to an internal personnel announcement. Mr. Fried’s office is being closed, and his former responsibilities will be “assumed” by the office of the department’s legal adviser, the notice said.

The announcement that no senior official in President Obama’s second term will succeed Mr. Fried in working primarily on diplomatic issues aimed at repatriating or resettling detainees appeared to signal that the administration does not currently see the closing of the Guantánamo Bay prison as a realistic priority, despite repeated statements that it still intends to do so.

Mr. Fried will become the department’s coordinator for sanctions policy and will work on issues including Iran and Syria.

The announcement came as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other Guantánamo Bay detainees facing death penalty charges before a military tribunal over the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made their first public appearance since October on Monday, sitting quietly in a high-security courtroom at the naval base in Cuba as pretrial hearings resumed. A closed-circuit feed of the proceedings was also shown at Fort Meade.

4. Why is Gitmo STILL Fucking OPEN for Business?

January 22, 2009
Obama signs order to close Guantanamo Bay facility

Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year. During a signing ceremony at the White House, Obama reaffirmed his inauguration pledge that the United States does not have "to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals." The president said he was issuing the order to close the facility in order to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism." A second executive order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations. That essentially ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods.

12. It wasn't an act of Congress. A 'president' set up Gitmo...

Besides and most importantly: Presidents are supposed to lead, on Guantanamo, torture, or any other controversial issue.

You know, as in "Here's something I want to do. Those who are with me, great. Here's why those of you who aren't, should."

Those in the Senate and the House will follow with appropriate legislation, like funding new jobs or clean energy or housing assistance or public education -- all the stuff that requires the political will to accomplish, even before a bill is introduced.

13. A President set up Gitmo via the Congressional Appropriations Process.

No money get spent unless Congress doles it out. Gitmo could not have been built on Bush's say-so. Congress has to authorize the expenditure and assign it to an account (DOD, State, CIA, what-have-you).

17. It's just typical that some figure the president can snap his fingers and make things happen

I have to wonder if those people have ever bothered to closely read the US Constitution. It's not that long.

In addition to the expenses you listed, I'm sure the US will have to pay the country that chooses to take these people. I'd imagine the entire thing would be pretty expensive.

Per Wikipedia:

On May 20, 2009, the United States Senate passed an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R. 2346) by a 90-6 vote to block funds needed for the transfer or release of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp

There's no doubt it should be closed, but until Congress appropriates the money it's not going to happen.

7. Sounds like they gave up.

22. 2015 is coming soon.

Thats when the next base closures are due to be considered plus it hinges on the makeup of the senate and congress still because if played right Obama could try to pressure the closure of Gitmo or atleast making it so its not used as an eternal prison anymore by the US.

18. K&R

24. Aaahhhh, Congress..........

Ian Moss, a spokesman for Mr. Fried’s office, said its dismantling did not mean that the administration had given up on closing the prison. “We remain committed to closing Guantánamo, and doing so in a responsible fashion,” Mr. Moss said. “The administration continues to express its opposition to Congressional restrictions that impede our ability to implement transfers.”